by Brendan Akashian
The Greater Lowell Hawks, a town-based hockey program combining players from the Lowell and Dracut communities. recently saw its teams travel across the northeast and enjoy a ton of success on the ice.
Over Thanksgiving weekend, the Greater Lowell Hawks Mite (Under-8) program entered three teams into the Heseltine Tournament hosted by Andover Youth Hockey. This annual tournament is played in honor of former Andover Youth Hockey Player, Scott Heseltine, and is the region’s premier mite tournament bringing together teams of all abilities to compete in one of the oldest and most prestigious youth hockey events in the area.
The three Hawks Mite teams compiled a combined record of twenty-two wins and six losses throughout the weekend and were able to take home the Mite AAA and Mite A titles. This is the first time in the 40-year history of the tournament that Greater Lowell Hockey has won a tournament division and only the fourth time a program has won multiple divisions within the Heseltine Tournament.
The Greater Lowell Hawks Mite program was led by Boomer Akashian, Mason Blute, Vivian Brown, Rowan Donovan, Reilly Drinkwater, Wyatt Gogas, James Graham, Ezra Hubert, Harrison Jean, Connor Joyce, Graham Keefe, Audrey Lavoie, Jack Lenzi, Stella McCoy, Braeden Millett, Duke Petterson, Griffin Ryan, Aidan Sheehan, Brogan Sheehan, Rory Sheehan, Lucas Santos, Quinn Smith, Doyle Stevens, Douglas Stilian, Henry Stilian, Camden Theriault, Wesley Thurston and Logan Torres. Pictured below are the Mite AAA and Mite A champions.
Also in November, the Greater Lowell Hawks sent four teams to represent our program to Lake Placid, New York to participate in the CAN/AM Youth Challenge Cup combining teams from across the United States and Canada.
Throughout the weekend, the program performed admirably, while bringing together over 40 Hawks families for an unforgettable weekend in the Olympic Village, where all teams played games on the iconic 1980 Miracle on Ice rink. All four Hawks teams performed well, with the Peewee 1 team winning the bronze medal in their division against tough competitors from Canada and the Northeast. The Peewee 1 team also placed first in the 12U Skills Competition Relay Race, led by Will Chambers, Adeline Drinkwater, Matthew Rurak, and Nathan Thumith. In the 14U division, the Bantam 1 team had two podium appearances in the Skills Competition Shootout with shooter Davin Pollinger taking first place, and goalie Navarro Sanchez placing runner-up. Pictured below are all four Hawks teams at the opening ceremonies at the 1980 Herb Brooks Arena.
Finally, in early December, our Squirt program descended onto Waterville Valley, New Hampshire to compete in the 2024 Deep Freeze Tournament.
The Squirt team was able to go undefeated on the weekend, winning the championship by a resounding score of 7-2 to cap off a great weekend. Pictured below are the Squirt champions Nelle Barry, Michael Chace, Gavin Cox, Declan Donovan, Mason Gogas, Avery Kalitka, George Kandrotas, Thomas Owens, Benicio Palumbo, Eli Sebeny, Graham Sheehan, Layne Thurston, and Cody Witts.
The Greater Lowell Hawks program has been around for over fifty years and offers Learn to Skate and Learn to Play programs. Check out Greater Lowell Youth Hockey at greaterlowellhockey.org to find out more about how to start playing hockey!
